First Clean Part 2

Kitchen and laundry. Our SS is away this week on holidays which I think will slow things down a little but there has still been some progress with Lincoln handing off a to-do list to his boss.

First Clean Part 1

Things are starting to take shape with the first clean completed over the weekend. Bifold doors and front door are now stained but the screws holding the bifolds to the steel frame are still exposed, not a good look. Starting to get excited at seeing a near finished result but also a little disappointed in all the small flaws to be fixed. That's building though! As you can see electrical is 95% done and same for the plumbing. Bedrooms floors are to be finished in wood after handover and we have yet to lock-in what we are using. Better get a move on with handover about 2-3 weeks away....lol

Ensuite Shower Rail Fitted

Yes finally one of the finishing touches is installed. Glad we also changed the mixer to a square shaped one over the Metricon supplied round pin lever style mixer. The silver hoses will take a better shape with time, still kinked from being in the box.

Projection Across Garage Installed

This is something we had forced upon us to meet Stocklands covenant. There was always a worry it would look weird and out of place. Even to last day before installation we were tossing up with our SS whether to install it or leave it in the garage and wing it with Stockland. As it turns out we think it looks OK and when it's painted should complement the facade.

Plumbing Fit Out Almost Complete

Main bathroom looking good. Spout and mixer positioned how we wanted but Studio M staff weren't keen on this at all. Interesting note the most recently completed displays here in Queensland also feature the same raised window and spout setup as above. The mirror and tiling on the wall to the right are all wrong and our SS had a meeting with the tiler today to sort out.

Painting Continued

The painting is starting to drag on a bit after the lightning start of the exterior. I think most of the interior has had 3 coats now and today the front door and the wooden bifolds have had stain applied. The painter has out done himself with the internal doors which have been sprayed to an extreme gloss. They look awesome but will be hard to repair if ever they get damaged.

Plumbing Fit Out Continues

More pictures of the plumbing fit out. I just love this guys work, everything is so neat and tidy. For anybody on the Gold Coast looking for a plumber give Mainline Plumbing at Nerang a call.

The Good Gear

A few things for the plumber to install.

Light Fittings

Went to Brisbane today hunting MR16 downlight fittings as in the first picture. Success as we found another 32 after cleaning out our local Beacon Lighting store of 8 they didn't know they had. The plan is to fit 9W LED MR16 type fitting bulbs to these 2 tone chrome and satin nickel finish fittings. The best part is they are on special for $3.95ea down from around $10ea. The lower picture is of a Mercator light fitting that takes a CFL 20W bulb and can bought at Bunnings for around $23ea. We will use these in the bedrooms and study for higher light output and help lower the overall cost of the setup.

I'm still a little unsure the LED's are going to cut it with light output so I've ordered a few off eBay to try out. I'll report the results as I believe LED's are the way of the future and might have just made it in terms of performance vs cost. The eBay ones are costing around $33ea with transformers.

Final Fitout Pictures Part 2

Water outlet for toilet. Pleased these found their way into the middle of the tile. I have seen them end up towards the top of the tile and the rainwater circle thing overlaps the tile which isn't a pleasing look...lol. +1 for Metricon and the plumber.

More Final Fitout Pictures

Ensuite and laundry plumbing mostly completed and grouting done. Laundry will feature a glass splashback the same as the kitchen but will be done after handover to save some $$$$.

Kitchen Splash Back Fitted

Splash back must have been fitted yesterday afternoon. The dull overcast light doesn't do the splash back colour justice. Not enough light to make the metallic finish pop. Hopefully the under cupboard lights should help with this.

Plumbing Fit Out

Early stages of plumbing fit out in progress. Had a meeting with plumber to double check positions of shower rails and all is looking good except we are waiting on tilers to grout bathrooms before the plumber can finish off. SS says tilers will be in Saturday morning to finish off.

Camera Notes

In case anyone had any questions about the camera used for the blog posts. It's a Panasonic Lumix 10 Mega Pixel. Let me tell you having been a professional photographer through the 90's it's amazes with it's performance and the Leica lense really is sharp. My only gripe is the lense flares badly sometimes when faced with bright on coming light. You can see it in some shots as white or light spots.

Down Pipes Installed

After having the down pipes installed it really reminded how much I don't like metal down pipes. Mainly because of the distinct lack of quality from any metal trades during this build. Also Merticon in Queensland only let you pick one colour for your downpipes and as a result this is what you get...colour clash even though the Grey is a Colourbond colour (Ironstone). We can paint it or I'll probably change it after handover. Oh and btw don't get me started on the rain head mounted on the side of the garage, if ever I needed another example of bad workmanship...pffftt.

Garage Door Install Faults

Where do I start??? Dented metal work, most of the door hardware at the front is held on by roofing screws and the best part is this sh*t home made bracket cut into cornice above the built-in cupboard. I'm afraid there are no redeeming parts of this install...nothing is square, nothing bolted on correctly or cut square. I'm mean WTF!!!!!!! Guess I'm a little angry...lol

Garage Door Installed

Garage door installed today and looks great. We knew the wood grain would work well with the colour scheme. Unfortunately the install was garbage, see my next post for details. Common theme is whenever a third party installer gets involved the quality of workmanship goes out the door or read that as no quality of workmanship or pride in a job well done! Just next job and show me the money.

Ka Boom!

Stockland getting hardcore with their earthmoving! For the last 2 afternoons there has been blasting opposite our block.

Main Floor Tiling Grouted

Water Tank Delivered

Water tank turned up amongst all the action, sort of wished it hadn't as I want to water blast the slab which it sits on.

Ensuite Vanity Feature Tile

This was a last minute change arranged between ourselves and the tiler. Blogger turned the picture 90 degrees, the lines run horizontal if you look at the previous ensuite photos you'll see this along the top of the vanity cabinet. The feature was made from one tile which is huge and cut into strips with a water cutter. I was lucky to get this single tile as they are normally only sold by the box and this was the last one in the country. Cost of tile around $55 + Freight $18 + Water cutting and transport 1 Carton of beer, result priceless!

Getting Arty

Front Door

I'm amazed the door handle looks so small now. I thought upgrading to the 750mm would look proportionately correct. While it doesn't look as silly as the standard included handle we might have to look around for something bigger at a later date.

Painting Day 4

Exterior painting completed today. Maybe the feature colour on the retreat front is a little wild!!

Tiling Almost Complete

From what I have seen today all the laying and cutting of tiles is complete. Door moulding on the toilet needs changing to a thicker one as the tiles have come up higher than the moulding itself. After this area is grouted the cornice can be fitted and ceiling painted. I'm really looking forward to seeing the ensuite completed.

Tiling Reaching Completion

Today we had 3 tilers on board and they have nearly finished all the tiling. All that remains is to finish off both bathrooms and the grouting. Looks like I'll paying that progress payment on Thursday after all.

More Painting Pictures

Painters will continue outside tomorrow I suspect subject to the weather, though the tilers also indicated they'll be stepping back to give the painters ago inside.

Painting Day 3

Dropped past the block this afternoon to find a frenzy of activity. Painters, tilers and a renderer thrown in for good luck...lol. I was really surprised to see the main exterior colour going on and I'm happy we changed to the darker colour as it contrasts well with the roof.

To Pay Or Not To Pay?

Invoice for fixing stage is due on Thursday but after checking my paperwork the house is not technically finished to this stage as laid out in Metricons own guideline.

The tiling is incomplete and I doubt will be finished by the end of the week. I'm in two minds as to whether I should pay or wait for completion of the tiling. I also expected a few outstanding faults wouldn't be fixed but Lincoln has been chipping away at them, almost to the point there isn't much that needs correction outstanding.

Building Inspection Results

First up this morning we had our independent building inspection with Paul Roberts. I found Paul by ringing any likely building inspectors in the Yellow pages, most weren't into new projects but instead doing pre-settlement inspections on existing homes.

Introduced Paul to Lincoln (Our SS) and away we went. End result was Paul said it was shaping up to be an excellent home with a high standard of workmanship throughout and no visible major structural faults. A few minor issues were found with the worst being the out of square bulkhead in the laundry. The other smaller issues being a couple of chipped tiles, one floor tile too low and the edges of the cupboard shelves needing a slight sand to take the sharp edge off before painting. Paul said that will help the painted surface wear better.

The both showers had the correct fall and the portico roof also had a good amount of fall which helps prevent dirt build-up. The dip in the ensuite ceiling just needs some more fixing screws added.

Final thoughts, $110 well spent for some peace of mind and confirmation that everything is on track.

Kick Panel Fixed

Kitchen island bench kick panel must have been fixed sometime on Friday or today. The previous one was cracked right through and I was hammering the poor SS about it so it was done before the tiling was finished.

Independent Building Inspection

After feeling like I'm going to get stuffed around on a few things I decided it was time to call in an independent building inspector. We just want someone that can go through and look for anything we have missed and also advise what's acceptable and what's not.

I've already heard that dreaded statement "That's within acceptable limits" from the construction manager and he wasn't keen on sorting out the clash between the architrave and light switch in the walk in linen cupboard.

Someone has been through today and marked all the faults in the plastering with pencil marks and also noted the moving of two of the light switches but not the one in the linen cupboard as mentioned above.

It will be interesting to see how the inspection goes as we do have some concerns, nothing too dramatic but some things are still not up to the standard we are expecting from Metricon. I'll post how it goes Monday evening.

More Ensuite Pictures

Some more pictures showing the progress in the main bedroom ensuite. The metallic tiles are hard to photograph especially in contrasty afternoon light. I'm happy with how the limestone wall tiles contrast with the floor tiles, the girls at tile selection really tried to talk me out of this and I held my ground.

Lucky for Metricon we didn't choose to have a square set ceiling because there is a dip in the roof above the shower. I fairly sure you won't see it when the cornice is installed.